Not Him
by feuerfunke
Summary: While shoppping for christmas presents, Hermione makes a strange encounter.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and make no money from the writing of this fiction.  
Warnings: Mild language  
A/N: Written for LJ-Community mini_fest.

* * *

Only a few people strolled down Diagon Alley this late on Christmas Eve. It was already dark and the street was lit by hundreds of candles hovering above the street, downed it into a light golden glow. Yesterday it had snowed and a thin layer of snow was lying on the roofs of the houses. The faintest smell of gingerbread lay in the air.

All in all Diagon Alley looked like the perfect place for a fairy tale gone true.

Hermione Granger strolled down the street lazily, having just finished her late christmas shopping. Normally she bought her presents in late August, just to be sure, but this year she had forgotten the present for her parents. This´ll be the first christmas she´d spent with them after she had removed the memory charm a few month prior.

To say her parents weren´t amused by what she had done was the understatement of the year. But their relationship was rebuilding slowly and her parents´ faszination with everything the Wizarding World could provide helped a litte in doing this.

She had about half an hour until she´d to apparate to her parent´s new home, so she decided to have a hot butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron. Yes, a butterbeer would definitely warm her up.

Even on Christmas Eve the pub was as crowded as it was every evening since the end of the war. Nobody seemed to notice as she entered the pub. It was as sparely lit as ever and all the smoke from the pipes and whatever the wizards used to smoke, didn´t help a clear view. Hermione stepped throw a particularly dimlitted passage under the gallery.

She froze. Panic rushed throw her as she wasn´t able to move any further. Luckily she could still use her arms, so she made a movement to grab her wand. The feeling of it in her palm calmed her a bit. Cautiously she looked around, trying to identify any potential danger. But there wasn´t anything amiss. Well, amiss considered for the Leaky Cauldron.

Then she saw it. There was a mistletoe hanging exactly over her. Damnit. In her sixth year she had had to kiss Cormac McLaggen because of one, so she hadn´t any good memories of this christmas tradition. But she did not want to know who she would have to kiss here. This wasn´t Hogwarts where the worst case would have been Malfoy or one of his fellow Slytherins. She particularly did not want to have to kiss a hag or someone similar disgusting.

A shadow appeared right next to her. He or she had the back on her, so Hermione couldn´t identify who was stuck with her, too. She prayed to have at least a human counterpart.

She was lucky, this particular prayer came true. But there her luck ended. This couldn´t be true.

Looking down to her with an expressionless face was one Lucius Malfoy.

"What is the meaning of this, Miss Granger?", he asked her.

"Mistletoe", she answered and added sarcastically, "Good evening and Merry Christmas to you, too, Mr Malfoy." He ignored her last statement entirely and just lifted his eyes.

"How inconvenient. I do not have the time for this. Let´s just find somebody to lift the hex."

"It isn´t that easy. This is ancient magic. Only a kiss will resolve the bounding", she explained.

He lifted his brow, "This is entirely your fault, Miss Granger."

"My fault? If I remember it correctly, it was you running into me.", she was getting more and more angry by his demeanor.

"Your point? If you had not been here today, I wouldn´t be stuck here with you.", his voice like venom.

"Oh, I´m so sorry I did not let you kill me in the Department of Mysteries six years ago.", sarcasm dripping.

"Do only I have to appreciate your bossiness and insufferable know-it-all attitude or do you delight your precious little friends with it, too?", he retorted, obviously trying to hurt her.

"Oh, no. You don´t even deserve a special treatment. But look on the positive side of this: Now you´re able to feel like Harry Potter once in your life. You should be grateful. Everybody want´s it these days, you know."

Silence.

He glared at her, perhaps trying to think of the most painful torture methods he knew of and trying to decide which one to use first. Hermione didn´t even think of backing down, not after everything that happend and what she had had to endure to take Voldemort down.

She took a glimpse at her watch. 6.55 pm. Definitely time to end this.

And then it hit her. To end this, she would have to kiss Lucius Malfoy. Kiss. Lucius Malfoy. Her stomach dropped, pretty sure she couldn´t do this, not after all the things that happened between them. The delighted face he´d shown at her capture was branded into her mind.

She looked up at him. The expression on his face showed her that he had come to the same conclusion.

She looked him in the eyes, seeing the same reluctance she was sure he saw in her eyes, too.

It was too much. She wasn´t able to look into his stormy grey eyes even a moment longer. There had to be something to be done about this. Hermione had to briefly close her eyes.

Then she felt it. His lips on hers, barely touching at all. The softness of his lips took her breath away. She couldn´t move, was unable to think. Before she could do anything, the tenderness of his lips was gone.

Slowly she opened her eyes. He was gone, had left her standing there too shocked to move or even think.

The moment she got hold of her environment she saw Rita Skeeter sitting on a nearby table and smiling sweetly at her. Her quick notes quill was rushing over a piece of parchment right beside her.


End file.
